Top tips for fall gardening outside & inside your home
Gardening in the fall can help you have a happy and healthy garden in spring and add green life inside your house for a happier winter. Read on for tips and reading recommendations from Shawnee County Extension Master Gardeners.
Winterizing
An important task in your yard to complete during the fall is to winterize. There’s still plenty of time to get this done, but don’t forget it! Winterizing the landscape includes refreshing the mulch on your plantings, cutting back and dividing perennials, and watering newly planted trees and shrubs. Completing these tasks and others will set you up for success when it comes time to get your hands in the dirt for next spring! Join Master Gardener Becky Harwick for Putting Your Gardens to Bed Sept 11, 7 to learn more! For more information on this topic check out Midwest Gardener's Handbook by Melinda Myers.
Brighten your home with houseplants
Once fall and winter come your landscape can feel empty. Including houseplants in your home can bring some much-needed life during the cold winter. There’s a houseplant to fit any niche in your home, from a bright, sunny west window, all the way to a back corner that doesn’t receive as much light. For recommendations on what houseplant and succulent will do well in different environments and best care practices join Master Gardener Caroline Seals for Houseplants and Succulents 101 Oct 9 to learn more! There are TONS of books available on this topic. I recommend The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual by Barbara Pleasant and House Plants for Every Space by Etsuhiro Mashita and Momoko Sato as great starting points for more learning.
Make gardening body friendly
Gardening is a great activity for people of all ages. However, as we age certain garden designs can be harder to work in. Proper garden design, being mindful and stretching can make gardening fun for many years to come. During Adaptive Gardening for Everyone Nov 13 Sharon Buscher will teach you how to make gardening a timeless activity. If you miss out on this event The Age-Proof Garden by Patty Cassidy, The Lifelong Gardener by Toni Gattone and Building Raised Beds by Fern Marshall Bradley are great resources.
Storing your harvest
After a good year in the garden, proper storage of your produce is important to enjoy it as long as possible. Some crops like tomatoes will need some kind of processing – freezing, dehydrating or canning – to be enjoyed in winter. Other produce like onions, potatoes and winter squash, can be left alone (after proper curing) to be eaten. K-State Extension has some great resources on safely preserving foods and the best methods of storage for each type of commonly grown vegetables. For safely preserving foods I recommend checking out the K-State Extension Preserve it Fresh, Preserve it Safe website. You'll find information for each vegetable, helpful recipes and methods to keep things tasting great for the longest time possible! For information on when to harvest and how to store produce, Chapter 13 of the Kansas Garden Guide is all about that topic. I hope that these resources will allow you to enjoy and share your garden’s bounty for months to come!
Questions
I invite you to call into the Extension Office about any gardening questions you might have. Through the end of September the Master Gardeners are staffing the Response Line. This is a free service to diagnose your issues and provide you with research-based information to solve your gardening problems. Call into the office at 785-232-0062, come into the office (1740 SW Western Ave) or use our new online question submission form!
